Archive by Author

May201605

A few weeks ago on the Accidental Tech Podcast, Casey reminded me that it’s possible to customize the icons shown for hard drives. I knew this, but hadn’t done it in a long time. John chided Casey for not continuing this habit, but I felt just as guilty. I enjoy it, its easy to do, so why not do it?

Apr201606

As long as there’s been software to update, people have been writing notes to tell you what’s gone into those updates. For the most part the readership was small — mostly IT managers — and the notes perfunctory. Today, though, everyone has a tiny computer in their pockets, and everyone is responsible for maintaining and updating their own software.

Feb201614

Process is expensive. Bigger teams, working from a distance, part time team members, and many specialists are all factors that lead to a more elaborate process. This might be obvious, but the more companies we get to know, the more we experience that this is something being ignored.

Feb201614

As teams gain experience it is important to work with them on giving timely feedback but when a team is in an early state of adoption and with all eyes on the retrospective, how do you go about choosing the right technique?

Feb201614

However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.

Jan201627

Today was Apple’s earning’s call. There was lots of interesting information and again Apple earned enough money to fill a super-tanker with $1,000 bills. The most interesting stat I heard was that last quarter Apple sold 34,000 iPhones per hour (IPH). Every hour. 34,000.

I had never thought much about Apple’s IPH number but 34,000 is crazy. That means they’ve got to build, ship, sell, and activate 816,000 iPhones a day. Has manufacturing somethings as complicated as an iPhone on this scale ever been done? Congratulations Apple on this amazing accomplishment.

Jan201614

One of the revolutions the Mac brought to computers was the discoverability of any program’s commands—you could just click through the menus to see more or less everything an app did, and most keyboard shortcuts would be labeled right on the screen. But there would still be secret features, like holding down option and command when clicking in PageMaker to zoom to actual size. I heard about it from a friend, and passed it on to other people, but unless you read the manual cover to cover you’d never know. R